How do you deal with your overbearing Indian family?

Indian families are insane. Most people know this. Most people also know that a group of Indian people in close proximity sounds like a comedy show – that has been picked up by various broadcasting channels several times, over the past few decades. In fact, I often think most British Indian families have been playing an undercover gameshow since the 1970s.

The game in question consists of a series of levels that you have to surpass until you unlock the grand prize. A bit like ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ but without all of the problematic connotations that come with actually making that connection.

The twist is that the game show isn’t a test of general knowledge and instead, your success is determined by how stereotypically ‘Indian’ the problems you have are. Before you ask: yes, marriage is a reoccurring theme in every section. The producers might even have an ‘Indian trauma checklist’ to ensure they’ve covered all of their top priority social and economic talking points.

There are several reasons behind why I think we’ve been playing an undercover gameshow since the 1970s. Firstly, have you ever noticed the lack of diversity? I mean, according to the representation of Indian people in mainstream British media, we’ve been dealing with the same socioeconomic problems since the 1970s.

The monotonous and repetitive portrayal of Indian people may have peaked at a questionable height because I’m beginning to wonder whether the producers of said broadcasting channels are trying to use their platform to create awareness towards contemporary issues, or if they’re just typecasting?

From a capitalist perspective, drawing attention towards problematic yet innovative Indian people in the 21st century might be considered as quite the modern-day revelation. Especially as we live in a society that likes to clump POC under a niche, little umbrella filled with different types of prejudice and everyday discrimination.

I’m all for drawing attention towards the Indian edition of ‘inevitable childhood drama’ you’ll endure whilst growing up; but why are all of our stories the same? Instead of creating a safe space for our voices to be heard, we’re just making noise. And taking pride in it.

The irony is that we’re silenced by the idea that we’ve been given a voice, but when the voice is Apu from The Simpsons – you can take it back. How can we even take ownership of our narrative if the writing is monotonous and the one Indian character is voiced by a white man?